Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Local Politics: False Colors

I hold in my hand an interesting document, a mailer from the Friends of Dan Satterberg, who is up for election for King County Prosecutor. Mr. Satterberg currently has the gig, having been the number two guy with the passing of previous KC Prosecutor Norm Maleng. Like the late Mr. Maleng, he's GOP, but you can't really tell it from the mailer.

"Democrats for Satterberg" is the heading on the mailer is the big title across the top, with a handful of local law-n-order Dems saying nice things about him. And it touts the fact that Satterberg has an Outstanding Municiple League rating (so does his opponent, Bill Sherman, but you wouldn't REALLY expect them to mention that).

So it seems like from the mailer Satteberg is the Dem candidate in this race. Actually, he is the Republican, but the letters GOP only appears in a flyspeck nod further down the page with an odd line break to push it away from the rest of the "Friends of Dan Satterberg" name of the organization. This is not a typo. Mr. Satterberg's organization has been running away from his political heritage, trying to minimalize the Republican tag as much as possible.

Don't think so? The lawn signs for Satterberg has the "R" so small you'd think it was a registered trademark (It also uses the weasel word "retain" instead of "re-elect", trying to smooth over the idea that he wasn't elected in the first place). And his side has been touting that it is non-political, as if being a Republican showed up like a bad case of gas one morning. Indeed, the worst charge that the GOP can lay on Mr. Sherman seems to be that he admits to being a Democrat and is (shudder) running for a partisan office in a partisan fashion.

Mind you, both candidates have Outstanding Muni ratings and great experience (Satterberg in the Prosecutor's Office, Sherman in court as a real-life prosecutor), so this contest is, at its base, a choice between good options. But the King County Prosecutor is not a "non-partisan" office, and for the candidate to pretend that it is, while engaging in fund-raising for his party (and for Jane Hague, in the beleaguered 6th) while condemning your opponent for having a political party, is a just a bit dissembling.